Cadbury has recently launched new re-sealable
packaging for their chocolate slabs.
“The launch of
Cadbury Dairy Milk’s resealable packaging is a £6-million project, which is
aimed at improving the visibility of the brand, as well as consumer
convenience. The easy-open, easy-close packaging allows consumers to keep the
chocolate longer by means of resealing the wrapper. The unique
new packaging allows consumers to be able to open and close their favourite
chocolate slab again and again”
The product has
been widely advertised on television. However, scientific investigation has
revealed two fundamental flaws with their advert (see report below).
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Dear
Cadbury
As a life-long fan of your chocolate products I
feel obliged to point out two problems with your current advertising campaign
for the new re-sealable packaging for Cadbury chocolate slabs.
The television advert shows the Peel-me
packaging being opened to reveal the blocks of chocolate beneath, then
immediately being re-sealed, without any chocolate being removed.
The first obvious problem with this scenario
is that all the Cadbury chocolates I’ve ever eaten have the block indentations
on the front and not the back of the chocolate, and thus they would not be
visible when the re-sealable packaged is opened.
The second reason that we think the advert is
misleading is that nobody who has ever tasted Cadbury chocolate would open and
then immediately reseal the packaging without consuming a single block. This
might happen with other brands of chocolate, but certainly not with Cadbury.
The empirical evidence in support of the above
assertions in presented in the short scientific report herewith attached.
Good luck with your new re-sealable packaging –
I don’t think it will be used much. :-)
Yours in faithful service to excellent
chocolate,
Craig
Morris
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
An empirical investigation on the fundamental tenets of
an advertising campaign to promote the new Cadbury re-sealable chocolate slab
packaging
Introduction
In
2012, Kraft Food introduced a unique new resealable packaging for their Cadbury
chocolate slab range. Such packaging was apparently designed for customer
convenience, to allow them to prolong the consumption of their favourite
chocolate over a period by facilitating resealing of the remnant chocolate
between feeding bouts to preserve its freshness and protect its contents
against spouses and dogs.
Much
planning and thought has gone into the design of this packaging: “[The] re-sealable digital activation and
packaging innovation is in-line with current South Africa consumer trends which
shows consumers are constantly seeking new experiences beyond the product. Both
enable our consumers to experience the joy of Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate
again and again” says Greg Banach, Kraft Foods Category Leader: Chocolate.
The
television advertising campaign for this product shows the Peel-me packaging
being opened to reveal the blocks of chocolate beneath, then immediately being
re-sealed, without any chocolate being removed. The two key premises of this
advert that have not, however, received any sound scientific attention. Accordingly,
the specific research questions of this research were: (1) does the block
indentation pattern in the slab lie on the verso, and thus be visible to the
potential consumer when the Peel-me re-sealable packaging is opened?, and (2) would
the consumer immediately reseal the package upon opening, without removing at
least one block for inspection and likely consumption?
Materials and Methods
A dual sampling procedure, similar to that employed
by agrostogists to estimate available herbage on planted pastures or natural
grasslands using a disc-pasture meter, was used to verify the surface structural
characteristics of the anterior and posterior of Cadbury standard flavour range
slabs. The finger feel method was calibrated by touching and estimating the
smoothness of three wrapped slabs, followed by verification of the estimates by
unwrapping and establishing the true location of the blocked surface.
Thereafter, a stratified random sampling design
was used to sample at least 40 (10 per flavour) wrapped slabs located on three
shelves of the confectionery section of a local supermarket. The position of
the blocked surface (Figure 1) was estimated by touch (following calibration,
as described above).
Figure
1: The blocked surface of a Cadbury chocolate
slab.
The second question regarding the viability
of re-sealing the chocolate slab without consuming any, or some, chocolate was
addressed using a sample survey questionnaire distributed internationally
through social media (Facebook & Twitter). Respondents were asked: When opening a re-sealable Cadbury 100g slab, do you: A)
immediately reseal it, B) eat some then reseal it, or C) nosh the lot?
Results
A total of 100% of all the chocolate bars
sampled had the blocked surface on their anterior side, opposite to the
re-sealable opening on the posterior. A total of 0% had the blocks on the back.
The survey revealed a skewed distribution of responses
(Table 1).
Table
1: Number of respondents in each response
category
|
Immediately
reseal
|
Eat some
then reseal
|
Nosh the
lot
|
|
0.3
|
1.3
|
179.3
|
Note:
numbers, but not ratios have been inflated to make the results more impressive.
Discussion and Conclusion
There is no empirical support for the
advertised characteristics of the new re-sealable packaging for Cadbury
chocolate slabs. Therefore, it is
recommended that, when purchasing a Cadbury chocolate, remove the whole
wrapper, turn the chocolate with the blocked surface to face you, and then
break up the slab into mouth-sized pieces for complete consumption (alone) at a
single sitting.
